Cisco Catalyst 2960-X/XR vs. Catalyst 3650 vs. Cisco 3850 Series

Cisco is always devoting to developing catalyst switch business for its network switch users. More innovations for Campus Networks makes Cisco’s catalyst family become stronger and stronger. For example, Cisco 2960 series is migrating to Catalyst 2960-X and 2960-XR Switches; Cisco 3750 and 3650 series are migrating to Cisco Catalyst 3850 and 3650 Switches. Compared with the previous catalyst switches, what benefits we can get from migrating to the new Catalyst switches? What’s the surprise?

Cisco Catalyst switches have intelligence that allows you to quickly adapt to emerging trends, increase security, and improve productivity. And Cisco Catalyst switching solutions have a reputation for leadership and support; you can trust them to address your most challenging business needs.

Here let’s check out the benefits of migrating to Catalyst 2960-X and 2960-XR Switches, and benefits of migrating to Cisco Catalyst 3850 and 3650 Switches. Also as the Innovations for Campus Networks, Catalyst 2960-X/XR Switches vs. 3650 vs. 3850 Switches, what’s the features comparison? Please read the following tables.

Benefits of Migrating to Cisco Catalyst 2960-X and 2960-XR Switches

Trends

Features

Previous

Access Switches

Latest Access Switches

Benefits

2960-S

2960-X

2960-XR

Scale/

Performance

Switching capacity

176 Gbps

216 Gbps

216 Gbps

Support gigabit access growth for wired and

wireless/802.11ac

Full line rate for all 48 ports

Yes

Yes

Yes

Gigabit downlinks

√

Yes

√

1G/10G uplinks

2x10G

or 4x1G

2x10G

or 4x1G

2x10G

or 4x1G

Stacking bandwidth

40 Gbps

4 members

80 Gbps

8 members

80 Gbps

8 members

PoE/PoE+

PoE/PoE+,

up to 740W

PoE/PoE+,

up to 740W

PoE/PoE+,

up to 740W

Easy and rapid deployment of more IP endpoints,

supported on all ports

Layer 3 dynamic routing (RIP1, OSPF2)

N/A

N/A

√

Convenience with Layer 2 and Layer 3 in a single

switch

IPv6 ready

Yes

Yes

Yes

Support more traffic through IP address scalability

BYOD/

Mobility

NetFlow Lite

N/A

√

√

Superior user experience through application

visibility and control

Advanced

Security

Cisco TrustSec with SXP3

√

√

√

Orchestrate role-based access to corporate

resources

Flexible 802.1x authentication

√

√

√

Enable port-based network access control

MACsec4

(hardware ready)

N/A

√

√

For encryption compliance

IPv6 First Hop Security

Yes

Yes

Yes

Protect against IPv6 address theft and malicious

attacks

Simplicity and SDN

Smart Install

Yes

Yes

Yes

Zero-touch configuration and Cisco IOS Software

updates when deploying new switches

Auto SmartPorts

and Auto QoS

Yes

Yes

Yes

Automatically configures interfaces based on the

type of device connected

Cross-stack QoS

Yes

Yes

Yes

Simplify operations by propagating QoS settings

consistently across the stack

SDN/programmability

•Cisco onePK ready

N/A

√

√

Simplicity and business agility

Energy

Efficiency

Green features

•Switch hibernation

•Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE)

N/A

√

√

Rapid ROI – saved over 50% in annual energy

operating costs compared to the Industry

Average (Source: Miercom report)5

More Notes: The Previous Access Switches also includes the Cisco 2950, 2960G and 2960 Series that are end of Sale and end of life.

RIP–Routing Information Protocol

OSPF–Open Shortest Path First Protocol 3

SXP–Security Group Tag Exchange Protocol

MACsec–IEEE Media Access Control Security Standard

Benefits of Migrating to Cisco Catalyst 3850 and 3650 Switches

Trends

Features

Previous

Access Switches

Latest Unified

Access Switches

Benefits

Catalyst

3560-X

3750-X

Catalyst 3850/3650

Scale/

performance

Bandwidth per stack

No stacking

64 Gbps

480 Gbps (3850)

160 Gbps (3650)

Support gigabit access growth

for wired and wireless/802.11ac

10 GE1 uplinks

2x10GE

2×10 GE

4×10 GE or

2×10 GE

BYOD/mobility

Integrated wireless LAN controller

N/A

N/A

Yes

Enable converged wired-wireless

access for operational simplicity

and scale

Common wired-wireless features

N/A

N/A

Yes

UADP2 ASIC for wired-wireless

convergence

N/A

N/A

Yes

Application visibility across wired-wireless

N/A

N/A

Yes

Hierarchical wireless QoS

N/A

N/A

Yes

Advanced security

Native Flexible NetFlow

N/A

N/A

Yes

Orchestrate role based access

to corporate resources by an

user, with any device, from any

location at any time

Cisco TrustSec/SGT3 for wired

√

√

√

Cisco TrustSec/SGT for wireless

N/A

N/A

Yes

Native MACsec encryption

Need service

module

Need service

module

Yes

Simplicity and SDN

Common features for wired-wireless

N/A

N/A

Yes

Simplicity and business agility

SmartOperations

√

√

√

SDN4/programmability:

•Cisco onePK ready

•OpenFlow ready

N/A

N/A

Yes

Other

Video/collaboration

•Medianet

√

√

√

Uncompromised user

experience: assess, monitor, and

troubleshot network proactively

Notes:The Previous Access Switches-Cisco 3750-G series which was not list here was end of sale and end of life.

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